Saturday, June 7, 2014

Alexander Macedonian versus Fatamid Egyptian

An 800 point Field of Glory game yesterday saw my reinforced Macedonians take on Mark W's Fatamid Egyptians.

My plan was to attack with my left, but almost immediately I saw I had weakened my right too much and so needed to move my reserves to cover a threat to my pike phalanx. Why was I using such slow troops? I had to send Alexander to hurry them up.

A very poor picture of Mark's beautifully painted Fatamids. There was a lot of them!

I had high hopes for my elephants, seen here lumbering forward. I can only think that being a elephant mounted lancer must be a very uncomfortable job.

My Sogdian horse archers did great work in holding up the Fatamids on my far left until they eventually ran out of table space after evading for the umpteenth time.

My plan was working as I took the plantation on the left, with my Cretan archers being initially able to support the Sogdians.

The bigger picture. At this stage it is all going well. Not in view there is in reserve on my left a unit of Prodromoi and on my right the Agema and Companions.

The Fatamid archers get a great roll and shatter my left wing hoplites. Mark W having a good die roll is such a rare event it deserved a special photo to capture it.

Grrr. Then it all started falling apart. My Thracians with their heavy weapon didn't know how to fight and broke very quickly. The elephants had come to late to their assistance. Meanwhile the hoplites were feeling even less inclined to fight.

A sub-commander tries to rally the Thracians. The sight of the fat man with the comb-over just didn't do it, even though he had a big horn. The Thracians could not be rallied.

Another deadly volley destroys the hoplites.

This time the sub-commander is able to rally the broken troops, but they were really in no fit state to keep on fighting.

The Fatamid cavalry had pushed round on my left, but the Sogdian horse archers are keeping them occupied. Just a pity the hoplites and Thracians have been destroyed.

The right. It quickly became apparent that I was outnumbered and my quality troops (Agema and Companions - the first time I have run two lance armed cavalry units) were not tactically adept to deal with the situation. I had left it too late to withdraw, but more through indecision than bad timing.

Just when things started to go good for Alexander, with both units of pikes coming to grips and quickly breaking their opponents, he gets in the way of a dying elephant while trying to inspire them and is killed.

The Agema had tried to buy time but were eventually worn down and obliterated. The second units of hoplites who had been on the left in reserve and had marched to the right to protect the flank of the phalanx were in trouble, but had fought well enough to kill Alexander's opposite number. However it was all bad news on this flank as the Companions were soon broken as they tried to withdraw and were charged in the rear, just as they were trying to help the remnants of the Agema.

Now it all got tricky. The Fatamid medium foot that had broke the Thracians and killed the elephants arrived just in time to stop the Hypaspists saving the hoplites. The Fatamid medium foot had the dice with then and succeeded in breaking the Hypaspists and winning the game. Another rare event in the annals of Mark W's dice throwing.

The finally picture of my left, the Prodromoi have routed some enemy light horse and the second unit of Thracians is coming back out of the plantation, but all too late.

A well deserved victory to the Fatamids. A great game using all troops and all the field. Some bloody fighting with both inspired C-in-cs being killed. Some tricky things kept us checking the rules from time to time and I readily admit I'm still a novice.

My movement trays worked a treat and don't seem to show up too much in the photos.

My newly painted troops did not fight well and it is rather obvious that their flock is too green and I will have to do something about it.

Maybe an extra commander might have helped me (the Fatamids were running four to my three). I also now realise that I failed to included the compulsory javelin armed light cavalry in my force. They would have been of more use that the Macedonian archers I had.